Mac’s ‘Ben Hur’ extravaganza

I could not believe my eyes when I came across this headline on microfilm in the September 24, 1960, edition of the Express:

Not only am I a Mac graduate, I was in the Latin Club (and co-consul of the club my senior year). I can’t imagine us being so ambitious as to try something like this. We were lucky to sell enough candy and spook-o-grams (long story) to raise enough funds to go to contests.

The Express had a page of high school news at the time, and according to the story, “the combined forces of the band, the Latin Club and Mac’s pep squads, the Lassies and Brahmadoras” would present on Oct. 28 three scenes from the Charlton Heston film version that had come out the year before.

In the first scene, the Lassies would stand in a circle symbolizing the Colosseum and, in the center, the Brahmadoras would portray Egyptian dancers. Five Latin Club members would represent “the five most important men in Roman history.”

Then, gladiators will enter and fight in the arena with the loser “stabbed to death.” Wow. I doubt that would fly today.

Finally, the story would move to the Circus Maximus (again, formed by Lassies) with the Brahmadoras serving as statues and a dividing wall in the middle. The chariot race would then commence with “two cardboard chariots, complete with horses.” I don’t know if that means the horses are cardboard or real. The result does not seem to have been choreographed, as a “real winner will be proclaimed.”

The sponsor of the Latin Club, Mr. John Michel, felt the show “will not only provide unusual entertainment for football fans but will also promote better interest in the Latin Club.” I would think so.

The reporter suggested that the group had “produced a piece of pageantry that may well go down in the school’s history.” It might be buried in a yearbook, but the lore didn’t make it as far as thirty years, as we never heard anything about it.